Declaring the Psychology Major: An Archival, General Model from an Urban University

The records of 806 psychology majors were analyzed to determine their academic profiles at the point of acceptance to the program. Seven descriptive categories adequately encompassed the students' background: (a) direct entry from high school, (b) internal transfer from within the university, (c) external transfer from outside the university, (d) transfer who pursued the major elsewhere, (e) short-term returnee, (f) long-term returnee, and (g) prior degree earned. The number, age, gender, and academic characteristics of the students within these seven categories are reported. Of more general interest, a prototype of the “traditional” psychology major is proposed; based on a certain subset of the records at hand, a generic model of the curricular path to the psychology major is offered.